At Christmastime
by NetsirkElocin
Summary: It's funny how one often becomes pensive during the holidays. It can be the perfect time to examine your thoughts and actions. Hermione finds herself alone and thoughtful and comes to a realization that perhaps things aren't as bleak and lonely as she thought. There may even be someone waiting for her to clue into their intentions. AU EWE WIP
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** _This is definitely an AU fic. There will be no foolish Ron/Hermione shipping in this. Betaing_ done _by the lovely bookworm4life0812!_

* * *

Hermione stared balefully at the dying embers of the fire in her flat. It was December 24th, and all of the Ministry workers had three days off for the Christmas holiday. It had been five years since the fall of Voldemort, yet the people of Wizarding Britain still treated every holiday as a grand celebration. In not doing so, she was an anomaly.

While Hermione herself had come out of the war relatively unscathed aside from a few scars and some bad memories, her parents had not been so lucky. They were killed in a freak boating accident while hiding under their new identities in Australia. Since both of her parents were only children, and her grandparents had long since passed, Hermione had no family to speak of to celebrate with during this festive time.

Her one relationship post-Hogwarts had only served to sever her relationship with the Weasley family, and by consequence, Harry, who had recently married Ginny. Hermione had caught Ron in the act of shagging another woman in their bed and Molly had the audacity to tell her that she must be mistaken. In a series of arguments, words were said, opinions voiced and there was no going back to the state of how things were before.

And so, Hermione was once again looking towards a Christmas holiday alone, curled up with a classy bottle of wine, a new book on Advanced Arithmancy and her cat, Crookshanks, who was getting on in years but somehow still held on.

Instead of feeling overly melancholic and dwelling on what was wrong with her life, Hermione's train of thought drifted towards the past few months of her life. It had been rather quiet until a few short months ago when her department decided that it needed to hire another Arithmancer who held an advanced degree. That should have been a great thing, as it allowed them to explore and expand their projects further, but it only served to throw her off-balance.

Her new co-worker was a wizard who she had never really noticed before. He had been the year above her at Hogwarts, in a separate house and their paths had never really crossed. Adrian Pucey was a brilliant arithmancer, but in Hermione's opinion, he was also a colossal pain in the arse.

***FLASHBACK****

"Hermione Granger, is that you?" asked a dark -haired man who was standing in the doorway of Hermione's office. The man was wearing dark blue robes and looked to be reading her name off of a slip of parchment.

"Yes. That's me. How can I help you, Mr...?"

"Pucey. Adrian Pucey. "

"How can I help you, Mr. Pucey?" Hermione asked as she set her quill down to give the man her full attention.

"You're the other arithmancer with the advanced degree, right?"

"What do you mean by 'other?' I'm the only one in the department." Hermione bristled. She didn't like what he seemed to be implying.

"Au contraire, Granger. I just got out of a meeting with Hines, and you're looking at your new co-worker. I start Monday."

"You start Monday?"

"Yup. Just wanted to come by and introduce myself since we'll be seeing a lot of each other," Adrian grinned cheekily before turning and sauntering off, leaving a perplexed Hermione in his wake.

***END FLASHBACK***

It had all begun rather innocuously. But soon, their working relationship devolved to something that would have been more at home in a classroom full of young teenagers than a workplace full of adults.

* * *

 _ **AN:** I have no idea where this came from, but I needed to write it. There will be a couple more parts. I know where it'll end up, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a review and share._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The playfully antagonistic relationship between Hermione and Adrian Pucey continued. There was a push and pull in their dynamic. One person would act, and the other would retaliate. It was not to cause harm or to be mean. It was just simply how they interacted with one another.

***FLASHBACK***

Hermione sat at her desk, quill in hand furiously penning an equation on a piece of parchment. The same equation also appeared on a board attached to her wall. She was so close to finding an answer. The door to her office opened, and two of her co-workers walked in. The first, Oliver Wood, was somewhat of a work friend who always had her back. The second was the enormous pain that was Adrian.

"Mornin', Hermione," Oliver said, waving his hand in greeting. The years since his graduation from Hogwarts had been kind to Oliver. He possessed a subtle aura of attraction that had many women interested.

"Good morning, Oliver. Pucey," Hermione replied, looking at the two men who invaded her office.

Oliver took the greeting as an opportunity to take a seat in a chair across from Hermione while Adrian remained standing.

"Can I help you with something?" Hermione inquired. She was anxious to continue her work and finally be done with that particularly trying equation.

"Yes, well, you see... We're starting a new project in the department. Hines asked me to speak to you. He's assigning you to work on a series of equations about predicting Muggleborns," Oliver explained to Hermione.

"That sound fascinating. I imagine that there has to be some pattern that would help us better understand that phenomenon."

"Do you hear yourself, Granger?" Adrian retorted while looking at the equation on the board. "There's no need to sound like a dictionary."

"Ignore him," Oliver continued. "Hines insists that you need a partner for this project. Someone who can look at things from an alternate perspective. In short, he's assigning Adrian as your partner."

"You've got to be kidding," Hermione intoned.

"Nope. I'm not." Turning to Adrian, Oliver added, "And Adrian, get away from the board before she hexes you. You know how she is about her board."

While Hermione hadn't been paying attention, Adrian had started erasing bits of her equation. Not entire sections, but just parts of symbols and numbers. "Pucey! Stop that!"

Looking her square in the eye, he erased one more thing, before hightailing it out of the office. He knew when he was in danger of being cursed. He also knew from experience that her hexes lasted a lot longer than most.

Sighing, Oliver shrugged apologetically. "Please don't curse the messenger."

"I won't. You didn't make this decision."

"Besides, you know why Adrian does stuff like that, right?" Oliver said, leaning back in the chair and folding his hands behind his head. This position gave him a better vantage point to observe the brunette in front of him.

"To be annoying?"

"No, to -"

Oliver didn't get a chance to finish because Hines poked his head in the office, beckoning Oliver to follow him.

"See you later, Hermione."

"Goodbye!"

Shaking her head, she looked back down at the parchment before continuing her work. But she couldn't help wondering what explanation Oliver had been about to offer.

***END FLASHBACK ***

* * *

 _ **AN:** Sorry for the short chapter! But, I've posted two today so that must count for something. Beta love goes to Bookworm4life0812. Thank you to my two lovely reviewers from the last chapter. As always, I'd love it if you left a review. I'm always looking for suggestions and comments._


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER:** Since I haven't mentioned it yet, I own nothing related to Harry Potter. So don't sue please.

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

It had reached a point where all the workers in the Arithmancy department and the adjacent departments were aware of the odd relationship that Hermione and Adrian shared. Their relationship was prime gossip fodder for the assistants and heads alike.

***FLASHBACK***

 _Early October.._.

"Hermione!" shouted a shrill voice from across the room. "Hermione!"

Hermione looked up from her sandwich and surveyed the crowd in the Ministry cafeteria. Squinting, she could see a blonde woman rushing in her direction. Judging by the bright colors the woman was wearing, it had to be none other than Lavender Brown. Lavender hurried to Hermione's table and sat down huffily across from her.

"Hermione! So glad to have caught you!" Lavender gushed while spearing a piece of spinach with her fork.

"Hello, Lavender. How are you?" Hermione asked warily. Lavender's presence usually meant that she had something she needed to share or find out. Lavender loved her gossip at the Ministry just as much as she did back at Hogwarts,

"I'm fantastic! So, I was talking to Marietta over in Misuse of Muggle Artefacts who was talking to Cho in Games who spoke to Lisa in your department. When were you going to tell me?" Lavender questioned as if she and Hermione were the best of friends and not simply co-workers for a big governmental office.

"Tell you what?"

"About you and Adrian! It's the latest gossip. You're the hottest new couple!" Lavender enthused. She was vibrating with excitement as she passed on this information to Hermione.

Hermione choked slightly on her bite of sandwich, before grabbing her water and taking a drink. "Me and Adrian? A couple?! Are you out of your mind?" she asked, flabbergasted.

"Yes, a couple! You spend so much time together. It's all very romantic. Romance in the Arithmancy department."

"We're not a couple, Lavender. We're co-workers. End of story."

"It'd still be very romantic."

"If you say so."

*** END FLASHBACK***

Sitting up and placing a bookmark in her novel, she looked at Crookshanks who was curled up in her lap.

"Well, Crooks. What do you say about some dinner? I'm feeling a bit peckish."

She stood up and walked into her kitchen nook. Her apartment was small but cozy. She had a large bedroom for herself, and a bathroom with a deep soaker tub. She had a small spare room for company and a living room with a large royal blue couch and full fireplace.

Opening cupboards and drawers, Hermione mechanically prepared herself a salad with chicken, throwing bits to Crookshanks as she went.

***FLASHBACK***

 _Middle of October_

"Granger!" came a voice from her living room. "Granger! Wake up!"

Sitting up in her bed, her hand went straight for her wand. Focusing a little, she cast a quick tempus spell and realized that it was 10 am on a Saturday. Peeling the covers away from her legs, she sat up and stepped out of bed before walking towards the voice.

"Granger!"

When she stepped out into her living room, she could see Adrian's head in her fireplace.

"Pucey, why are you flooing me now? Can't it wait? It is Saturday, you know. A day when most people don't work and may even try to sleep in?"

"Yea, yea. I hear you. Cute pyjamas, by the way. However, you should come to work."

"Why? What's wrong? What happened?" Hermione replied, ignoring the pyjama remark.

"Nothing is wrong, per say. It's just that I was in working on the muggleborn equations, and I think I found something. I could use some company, I mean... a second set of eyes."

"You want me to check over your work?" Hermione asked, trying to understand the situation at hand.

"Yes. No. Just get here soon?"

"What if I have plans?"

"Come on, Granger. I know you don't have plans. On Saturday, you usually wake up late, do some chores, your shopping and read a novel. Those aren't plans."

"Wait... how do you know that?" Hermione asked.

"See you soon, Granger!" Adrian said instead of answering her question.

Shaking her head, she returned to her bedroom and got dressed. Even as she did so, she wasn't entirely sure why she was dropping her usual Saturday plans to help him.

*** END FLASHBACK***

* * *

 **AN:** _Here's another little chapter. I know where I'm going with this, so please bear with me. Beta love to Bookworm4life0812!_


	4. Chapter 4

_Just a reminder, Harry Potter isn't mine. I just play with it from time to time._

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After polishing off her chicken salad rather quickly, Hermione was left trying to find a way to occupy the rest of her evening. Her apartment was spotless. All the dishes were done and even the laundry pile was small. She found herself sitting at her kitchen table, with Crookshanks at her feet with nothing to do.

"Well, Crooks," said Hermione. Crookshanks regarded Hermione as she spoke, cocking his head in time with her words. "It's going on eight. I guess the best plan of attack would be to take a nice bath and find some pyjamas. I just picked up a new bath potion. It's supposed to exfoliate the skin and it smells of lilac."

Hermione reached down to ruffle his fur before heading to the bathroom.

**Flashback**

 _"_ _Pucey!" Hermione yelled when she stepped out of the floo. She still wasn't sure why she made a change from her standard Saturday plan to check out his_

 _"_ _Granger!" Adrian replied, his voice coming from somewhere down the hall._

 _"_ _Pucey!" Hermione tried again, walking in the direction of the sound._

 _"_ _Granger!"_

 _"_ _Pucey! Stop being ridiculous and come out from wherever you are hiding. You wanted my help. I'm here."_

 _"_ _Alright, alright," Adrian said as he came out from behind a stack of books and peeked out of a doorway. "Down here. You need to check out this equation. I think I'm onto something."_

 _Hermione continued down the hall and followed Adrian into the room. Upon entering, she froze. Where she was expecting a normal sized board, roughly the size of a large desk, she saw a big blackboard that took up the entirety of two walls. And every conceivable writing spot was covered in slightly messy handwriting in varying colours._

 _"_ _What are you...? How did…?" Hermione tried to ask but found that words were failing her._

 _"_ _I've been at this since last night. It occurred to me that we've been going about this all wrong. We have been trying to pinpoint the instance rate of muggleborns, but have been leaving out some pretty important information."_

 _"_ _What do you think we're missing?" Hermione asked, eyeing up the calculations on the board._

 _"_ _Ley lines."_

 _"_ _Ley lines? Seriously? You have to be joking."_

 _"_ _Yes, seriously. I don't know how you see them, but they're actually places of power. I am willing to bet that the happenstance of a muggleborn birth has something to do with ley lines."_

 _"_ _How do you figure?"_

 _"_ _I'm trying to work out if it has to do with where they were conceived or where they were born, but I have a really good feeling that they're involved."_

 _"_ _Pucey, we deal with numbers and equations. There's not really room for your 'good feelings.'"_

 _"_ _Fine. Let's settle this. Where were you born?"_

 _"_ _I was born in Wiltshire. Salisbury, if we're being precise."_

 _"_ _Salisbury? You're sure?"_

 _"_ _Of course, I'm sure."_

 _"_ _Look at this," Adrian said as he pulled her over to look at a map on the desk. On it, he had three thick lines drawn over the map of England. "Salisbury runs along the ley line connected to Stonehenge. It has to mean something."_

 _"_ _It's likely a coincidence. I doubt being born there has anything to do with my being a witch."_

 _"_ _There's another angle I'm considering as well. Granger, any chance you know where you were conceived?"_

 _Hermione gaped at him in shock. "Where I was conceived?! Now I know that you're trying to pull one over on me."_

 _"_ _Yes, where you were conceived," Adrian replied, "So, do you know?"_

 _"_ _I… uh, I mean, theoretically I do. But I fail to see how that will have any relevance."_

 _"_ _Granger, just answer the question."_

 _"_ _Well, you see my father's birthday is about nine months before mine. It was also during the Christmas holidays. My parents decided to travel to London for a week to see an opera and to celebrate my father's birthday."_

 _Gesturing to the map once more, Adrian grinned. "That just proves my theory. London is a ley line hotspot. Not only does it also have the ley line from Stonehenge running through it, but it also has a ley line coming in from two other directions."_

 _"_ _That seems like a rather wooly connection if you ask me. Next, you're going to tell me that little green men are somehow involved or worse, divination."_

 _"_ _Little green men?" Adrian asked, his eyebrows furrowing together. "Divination? Granger, where do you come up with these things."_

 _"_ _Nevermind," Hermione said waving his question off. "This is what you needed me to see?"_

 _"_ _Yup."_

 _"_ _And it couldn't have waited until Monday?"_

 _"_ _Nope," Adrian grinned._

 _Pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration, Hermione replied, "You are barking. Utterly nuts."_

 _"_ _And you just love it."_

 _"_ _You wish."_

 _"_ _Well, I…" Adrian started to say while shuffling his feet slightly, before blurting out. "So whatever happened to Weasley? I'm surprised you aren't married and a few kids into that relationship by now."_

 _"_ _What?" Hermione asked, off kilter due to the sudden change of topic._

 _"_ _Whatever happened to Weasley?"_

 _"_ _I don't see how that is any of your business."_

 _"_ _It's not. I'm just a curious person."_

 _"_ _Well, you know what they say about curiosity and the kneazle."_

 _"_ _Yes. That the satisfaction of knowing the answer brought him back from the dead. So what's the story?"_

 _"_ _I don't see why you want to know."_

 _"_ _Humour me."_

 _"_ _I came home one day after work to find him in bed with some woman. He… they were shagging. In our bed. I shot a stinging hex at him. It made him realize that he had been caught. He tried to apologize while the woman tried to leave unnoticed. She got out of there, but not before I saw who it was."_

 _"_ _So, who was it? Who did you see Weasley with?"_

 _"_ _It was Romilda Vane. That stupid harpy. It was bad enough that she tried to drug poor Harry in school, but sleeping with my fiance was the last straw. I sent a rather nasty curse her way too."_

 _"_ _So that was it? The end of you and Weasley?"_

 _"_ _Yes. He tried to apologize. In doing so, he ended up admitting that it wasn't the first time. I kicked him out while I packed my stuff and found an apartment. End of story."_

 _"_ _You're too good for him anyway."_

** End Flashback**

Hermione inhaled deeply the scent of the bathwater before slipping into the hot water. She instantly felt her muscles relax, and a sense of lethargy came over her. She closed her eyes and prepared for a nice long soak.

* * *

 **AN:** Sorry for not updating in forever? I really have no excuse other than I had zero desire to write. Between work, and home and other things, I've been mega busy. I remembered that this fic wasn't finished when I checked out my profile. I re-read what I'd written. An hour later, this was the result.


	5. Chapter 5

_Because it's worth repeating, I sadly don't own any bit of Harry Potter. Except lots of paraphernalia. That has to count for something, right?_

* * *

Hermione wasn't sure how long she stayed in the bath, but the water was still warm even if the bubbles were slowly dissipating. Swishing her hands over the bubbles, her thoughts once more turned to her life these past few months.

**Flashback**

 _Late November_

" _How are you doing today, darling?" Oliver asked as he took a seat in front of Hermione's desk._

" _I'm well. And you?" Hermione replied, placing down her quill and looking at Oliver._

" _Fantastic."_

 _Hermione stared at the man sitting in front of her. Oliver was acting jittery and his happiness seemed a bit forced._

" _So, Oliver, any particular reason you're visiting my office today?"_

" _I need a reason to visit? Can't I stop by for a simple mid-day chat?"_

" _You can. I just don't get the feeling that that's the case. So, I'll repeat myself. Any particular reason you're visiting my office today, Oliver?"_

" _Well, now that you mention it…"_

" _Yes?"_

" _I know that you and Adrian spent some time here last weekend and had a breakthrough. The higher-ups heard about that and are pushing me to push you into making your findings known sooner rather than later. Which will mean some overtime to work on it. With Adrian. The higher ups seem very determined that you both work on this. Not separately. But as a team effort."_

" _How soon is sooner?" Hermione inquired, her mind racing at the thought of trying to meet a deadline sooner than she anticipated._

" _Before the Christmas holiday, I'm afraid."_

" _Before the holiday? But that's in a month. How do they expect us to figure it out by then?"_

" _I don't think they expect you to figure it out. Well, not entirely. But they want to hear something."_

" _All right. Thanks for passing it on, Oliver."_

" _Sorry to always be the bearer of bad news, Hermione," Oliver said as he stood and walked out her door._

" _Wait a second… What do you mean all of our work needs to be done together? Oliver! Get back here!" Hermione yelled._

" _Sorry! Got to go. Meeting!" Oliver said as he sped down the hallway away from Hermione._

**End Flashback**

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Hermione lifted her head from the side of the bathtub and cocked her head to try to listen harder.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

**Flashback**

 _End of November, after the last meeting with Oliver_

" _Good morning, Granger!" Adrian said cheerily as he waltzed into Hermione's office. "Great day, isn't it?"_

" _Pucey," Hermione replied with a slight head nod. She was determined to ignore his cheerfulness._

" _Granger. I've got good news."_

 _At this, Hermione raised her head to look at him. "What kind of good news?"_

" _We're going on out into the field! I cleared it with the department. We're going to go check out a few ley line sites. We're going to go to London and Salisbury."_

" _Out in the field?"_

" _Yup."_

" _To London and Salisbury?"_

" _Yes."_

" _To where I was conceived and born?"_

" _Yes to both."_

" _With you?"_

" _Thank Merlin, she gets it!" Adrian grinned._

" _No, thank you. I'll stay right here," Hermione said as she crossed her hands in front of her on top of her desk._

" _Not possible."_

" _Of course it's possible. I'm not going anywhere outside this office with you."_

" _You can, and you will. I'm assuming that you had the same spiel given to you from Oliver as I did? About needing to work as a team because it looks good on the department or some rubbish like that?"_

 _Hermione closed her eyes and sighed. He had her there._

" _Yes, something like that."_

" _Great. So you know you need to come. Grab your cloak. I have the apparation coordinates."_

 _Hermione stood up from behind her desk before grabbing her purple travelling cloak. Slinging it over her shoulders, she turned to Adrian and steeled her shoulders. He stood up wordlessly and led the way to the apparation platform._

 _When they arrived at the platform, Adrian pulled a slip of parchment from his cloak pocket. He made to grab her wrist for side-along apparation but Hermione pulled back._

" _You are not taking me side-along!"_

" _Yes, I am. I know where we're going."_

" _No, you'll splinch me! Or worse, lose me somehow."_

" _I won't," Adrian promised._

" _I don't believe you."_

" _Tough," he replied as he grabbed her wrist and spun on the spot. The last thing that was heard was her yell of "Pucey!"_

 _*End Flashback*_

Standing up slowly so as not to fall, she stepped out of the warm bath and wrapped a fluffy purple bath towel around her. Grabbing her wand from her pile of s clothing, she opened the bathroom door before peering out.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

* * *

 **AN:** Sorry for the short chapter! I think I've figured out how I'm ending this and how many more flashbacks there are. Thanks for sticking it out with me this far.


End file.
